U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is being mocked for making a “mathematically absurd claim” about Black newborns.
This comes after Jackson wrote in her dissent recently that diversity “saves lives,” arguing that it is essential for “marginalized communities.”
“It saves lives. For marginalized communities in North Carolina, it is critically important that UNC and other area institutions produce highly educated professionals of color,” the country’s first Black Supreme Court Justice said.
“Research shows that Black physicians are more likely to accurately assess Black patients’ pain tolerance and treat them accordingly (including, for example, prescribing them appropriate amounts of pain medication). For high-risk Black newborns, having a Black physician more than doubles the likelihood that the baby will live, and not die,” she continued.
In response to Jackson’s claims, attorney Ted Frank wrote in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that the Justice made an “innumerate mistake.”
“A moment’s thought should be enough to realize that this claim is wildly implausible. Imagine if 40% of black newborns died—thousands of dead infants every week. But even so, that’s a 60% survival rate, which is mathematically impossible to double. And the actual survival rate is over 99%,” Frank said on Wednesday.
Frank, a senior attorney at Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, added that Jackson’s claim came from a 2020 study and said that it didn’t match with her statement.
“The study makes no such claims. It examines mortality rates in Florida newborns between 1992 and 2015 and shows a 0.13% to 0.2% improvement in survival rates for black newborns with black pediatricians (though no statistically significant improvement for black obstetricians),” he said.
The attorney went on to scrutinize Jackson’s dissent, calling it “flawed” and warning that citizens should be vigilant about the data being presented in front of them.
“So we have a Supreme Court justice parroting a mathematically absurd claim coming from an interested party’s mischaracterization of a flawed study. Her opinion then urges ‘all of us’ to ‘do what evidence and experts tell us is required to level the playing field and march forward together.’ Instead we should watch where we’re going,” Frank said.
